Another senior al Qaeda middle-manager taken down in Iraq; said to have ties to bin Laden and Zawahiri

Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al-Kurdi

Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al-Kurdi, was killed on March 27th by Coalition forces near Abu Ghraib. al-Kurdi was a seasoned jihadi of fifteen years and a well connected individual with ties to the Takfiri insurgent groups in Iraq as well as al Qaeda high command. A slide from Major General Rick Lynch’s press briefing describes al-Kurdi as follows:

•Traveled extensively throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq over the past 15 years and formed relationships with Al Qaeda’s senior leaders in Afghanistan

•Given the title of Al Qaeda Ambassador and served as a liaison between terrorist networks, an operations officer who coordinated activities of terrorist groups, and security chief for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan

•Over the past six months, al-Kurdi worked as a Jayshal-Islami Cell leader in Baqubah nd was allegedly involved in kidnapping an Iraqi woman

“Halabja [Northern Iraq] – Local security officials in Al-Suleimaniya warn that some members of ‘Ansar Al-Islam’ [previously named ‘Army of Islam,’ i.e. Jund Al-Islam], Al-Qa’ida and the Taliban who were driven out of Afghanistan by Operation Anaconda, have now joined the battle-front in northern Iraq New information surfaces daily about ties between Ansar Al-Islam, bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. One of the security officials said that the Iraqi government has been providing secret financial support and training to Ansar Al-Islam in order to weaken the Kurdish opposition ” “Some Kurdish commanders are minimizing the danger of Ansar Al-Islam ” “The organization has only a few hundred fighters, but it controls several Kurdish villages in northern Iraq, close to the Iranian border and on the fringes of the area protected by the U.S.”

“The information about the ties between Ansar Al-Islam and Al-Qa’ida came from Rafid Ibrahim Fattah {aka Abu Umar al-Kurdi , an Iraqi who was arrested by the forces of Jalal Al-Talabani [in northern Iraq] He had fled from Baghdad in the mid 1980’s and lived in a refugee camp in Tehran “

The US Military drivers driving through IED territory in Iraq, basically risking their lives in the war on terror, must smile a grim smile, when we take down one of these Al Qaeda leaders.
Some say the war on terror is not connected to Iraq. I say it is directly connected to Iraq. Al Qaeda leaders and resources have been drawn into Iraq and in Iraq Al Qaeda is losing.

Good news. However, I would like to repeat my question from a few days ago: I wonder if you could give your estimation of the overall strength of the insurgency, as compared with, say, a year ago and two years ago. Is the total number of insurgents up or down or the same? I am asking because I hear different stories from different sources, and my impression is you are pretty well-informed.
I wish you would do a post on this.

Jamison, it appears that Dahr Jamail is associated with Inter Press Service and its subsidiary Asia Times Online. This would be enough to indict him by association.
IPS and AToL, most certainly a loss-making operation owned by one of Asia’s wealthiest individuals, is known for creating a nexus of anti-Americanism by bringing together Islamists of all stripes, poststructural leftists, and extreme rightists, into a propaganda coalition.
Their modus operandi is to take each and every opportunity to bash America, democracy, and 3rd world pro-democracy movements, through opinionated commentary that is pushed as analysis and news to the unsuspecting web information markets.
They are simply a private psyops operation. They have publicly declared that their agenda is to punish America for its string of successes in taking democracy to the 3rd world. It can be argued that their agenda is to push for a totalitarian world order, while masquerading as pacifist and bleedy-heart humanitarian.

I find it incredibly interesting that the MSM totally missed this catch. Of course, why should I be surprised? Why would MSM print anything positive whatsoever coming out of Iraq? Thanks for the posting and God bless.

#13 Jamison,
Dhar Jhamal –
Prior to OIF, Dhar Jamal was a “journalist” for a weekly newspaper in Anchorage Alaska. He now spends approximately 90% of his time speaking at various “Hard Left” events(for a fee) thru out the world(I.E. Communist events in Italy etc)…and supposedly, he spends the other 10% of his time “investigating the truth”.
You can find a sample of his work herehttp://www.anchoragepress.com/archives/document40be.html

PeterB
“My take is the strength of the insurgency has remained about the same”
Yep, same number attacks, a greater proportion against softer targets. A year ago they controlled real estate, today they control none.
A little over a year ago, Mosul didn’t have any security but a Stryker Brigade. Now the ISF patrols more than half of it. TallAfar was a safe have, now not much happens there. Western AlAnbar was lit up like a X-Mas tree on an attack density map, now it doesn’t even register.
The concern was about 7 problem provinces, now the concern is about 3 problem provinces.

peterb: thank you for the comment.
Soldier’s Dad: Yes, I knew most of what you have said (though I disagree that they don’t control any areas) But some reports I have read say the insurgents have just moved to Baghdad, and their total numbers are still the same. I wish our host would post something about this.